First generation college student, Carmen Gutierrez, Class of 2017, has taken all opportunities available to her at the University of Illinois, including studying abroad. She and three other students were recently featured in the History Department magazine. Some of Carmen's thoughts are included here.
I chose to study abroad in Pavia, Italy with LAS, and it ended up being about the same price as staying on campus for a semester.It certainly took a lot of preparation on my end but, I couldn’t be happier with my experience abroad. Though studying history is much more complex, there is no denying that much of our time as history majors is spent memorizing critical events and historical characters; yet if we never really interact with the culture personally it makes our strenuous academic efforts feel arbitrary and meaningless. I felt that because of the demographic composition of my classes I was able to get a better world view on diplomatic and political relations due to our interconnected past, which is something I really don’t think I could have come into contact with in Champaign. At the University of Pavia where I was staying, my classes were composed of what felt like 80% international and Erasmus students from neighboring nations, everywhere from Brazil, Germany, the US, Pakistan, etc. I mentioned before how I worried that by putting myself in a position abroad I had everything to lose but I realize now that for students who are willing to take on this challenge, in reality, have everything to gain, whether it be personally or academically. If possible I would love to try and study abroad again, but overall I cannot stress enough how pivotal this experience was for me and my future path.